are coupling and other rods typically painted on a steam engine to protect them from rust? I’m not referring to a museum piece, but a working freight engine.
it seems that they are not painted from the factory on most models. I see they are painted on some brass engines when painted by the owner. On some old black and white photographs (1940s) it seems that they are, but may only be painted up to the coupling point where I assume they can be wiped with oil.
What’s a “coupling rod”?
Are you talking about side rodes, main piston rods, couplers, valve gear, uncoupling levers???
never worked around steam power but over 20 or so years, every cut lever or uncoupling rod i ever saw had been painted once. when it was new. after that, they just went through life as they were. i never noticed any lubrication being used where they connected to the pin either.
grizlump
I found the confusion- Wiki identifies side rods as coupling rods in its Steam Locomotive components article. Nothing to do w/ the couplers/cut-levers - basically part of the steam locomotive gearing/‘drive train’.
These wouldn’t be normally painted, but instead would kept clean and lubricated, same as the main connection rods and the valve gear. They would have been ‘metal’ color, since they were unpainted metal (did they have a slight coating of oil - that could pick up lots of dirt and soot). I guess some special locomotives may have had painted detailing (white edging?), but generally these should be some sort of metal color on your loco models.
I found an example, but it doesn’t seem typical
Well, I was not too convinced that that image you posted simply is 2 different types of metal (or levels of polish/finish) - one for the rods and one for the bearings. So I searched around the web to find a color image of a steam locomotive, and eventually I did find one with the rods unmistakably painted (from Thailand).
So the answer is clearly some railroads have painted their steam loco connecting rods, but I doubt it was very popular with most US railroads post-Victorian era (during the Victorian era, I swear they took advantage of all the new paint pigments and formulations coming out of the laboratories to paint everything in bright, funky colors)
the image posted is most likely a builder’s photo and the engine is all dolled up for the picture taking.
i’m sure that american practice for side and main rods would have been the same as it has always been for couplers and wheels. no paint. makes it easier to find defects in the metal upon inspection.
grizlump
Like so many other things, the answer to this question depends on the railroad you’re asking about and the period you want to model. The Santa Fe’s painting instructions for steam locomotives specified white side rods with black at the couplings. This style lasted into the 1940s, but the late 1940s and early 1950s, the same rods were often painted solid black. The Santa Fe’s most modern locomotives with lightweight rods were more likely to have them unpainted, and in some cases the side rods and main rods were unpainted but the valve gear was painted.
But I agree that you can’t trust builders’ photos on this or other painting details, because they show engines specially painted (with water-soluble paint) to make wheel arrangements and other details show up in black-and-white photographs. The real paint job was hidden under the photo paint, which was washed off after the “birthday pictures” had been taken.
So long,
Andy
On the PRR when a loco was torn down for class repairs the main and side rods would be white washed. When put in service defects and cracks would show up as rust streaks. Any hint of a defect would be noted and the loco would be out of service until a new rod was fitted. There were no engineer or fireman that would run a loco knowing a rod was cracked.
Pete
